The X58A-OC, the enthusiast community and a long-term vision

In a couple of weeks, undoubtedly many hardware enthusiasts will lay their hands on GIGABYTE’s upcoming completely new type of mainboard: the X58A-OC, a board built for overclocking. The team responsible for this peculiar board has, through various leaks on the official blog or the dedicated microsite, given you, the end-user, already a bunch of reasons why you should buy this board. In this editorial, I try to explain the reason behind my decision to buy this mainboard, how this type of mainboard is also appealing to, for instance, crunchers and why this purchase is based on a long-term vision on how hardware vendors should deal with the different enthusiast markets. Here’s my personal analysis of the X58A-OC ‘situation’.

Introduction

Before I get started with this editorial and presenting you my personal reasons for buying this mainboard, let me get one thing very clear: I am not getting paid to write this article. In fact, this editorial is nothing more than my personal view on the launch of this mainboard and how it could affect the manufacturer of this product or any other manufacturer of hypothetical future products. At the end of this article, I will also try to give a couple of arguments that should make clear the sole purpose of this text is to explain how I believe this board can change the overclocker’s future.As always, feel free to comment on any of the paragraphs of this editorial if you think I’m wrong, right, incomplete or just mental. Okay, let’s get started.

Overclocking, the historical perspective

Just for fun, open your instant messenger and ask any of your overclocking friends (or enemies) how they got into overclocking. Chances are high most of them will reply that they used to play games and wanted more gaming performance for the same amount of money. More bang for the buck, as trained hardware reviewers would say. So, as many of the gamers (still) are not wealthy enough to just go out and buy new hardware anytime they lack a bit of performance, they started overclocking their processor, video card and other parts of the system. Some of the overclockers eventually continued overclocking purely for achieving a higher benchmark score. Agreed, not very useful in real-life, but neither is collecting stamps or sky-diving. It is fun, however, to experience how with each increase in frequency your ‘rating’ goes up. We can’t underestimate the adrenaline rush of breaking an existing record, any hardware or benchmark, after days of fine-tuning the hardware, the operating system and drivers.

The overclocking community has been a niche market since the absolute beginning. For manufacturers who, for obvious reasons, wanted to address this small market a choice had to be made. The question was simple: how do we integrate features that overclockers want into our current product line-up? As the overclocking community is, historically speaking, a subgroup of the gaming industry, it seems like a very logical step to add the overclocking features to the product line-up designed for and targeted at the gaming community.

And that’s how it went down: ever since manufacturers decided overclockers are like gamers, the vast majority of the hardware tweakers have been paying for all those fancy gaming features we probably never use. Just look at the high-end products currently available, the features marketers promote and the high price-tags they come with.

I wonder, though … are we, overclockers, really similar to hardcore (video-) gamers?

The answer to this question is, in my humble opinion, definitely no. Since the rising of the multi-core processors, the real-life relevance of overclocking your processor has been decreasing. After all, where in the past you only had one processing core dealing with the multiple active applications, you now have several processing cores to deal with all your applications. Looking at it from a different point of view, it also seems that the hardcore gamers (those who are making money in competitions) are actually more interested in a stable configuration than in one which is just a tad faster. Actually, overclockers don’t really care about the practical relevance of the hardware’s overclocking capabilities anymore. They care about the benchmark score output. They care about their score’s efficiency (results in relation to operating frequency). At HWBOT, they care about how to improve their team’s ranking by overclocking previous generation of hardware. They care about the hardware’s ability to finish the benchmark.

6 year and 8 months ago –
There are also some differences between the overclockers and server guys:

1. Upgradeability
If the IT guy can keep the platforms running longer with only a modest upgrade (ex. new CPU) he will definately go that way. This may also be true for the strapped for cash overclocker but most of us tend to (try) to go for the latest and greatest platform.

2. Performance per Watt
The energy bill in datacenters is becomming more and more important. Yes, less features means less energy required. But overclockers don´t look at the energy their bench system is consuming, I for one sure saw it in my energy bill the moment I started to use my phase on a daily basis They also don´t care about energy saving features inside the mobo or CPU as those don´t contribute to higher overclocks.

So I´d say we have something in common with all of the other categories out there, but in the end we form a seperate group just as the others. The bigger this group gets, the more we´ll get noticed by the marketing and sales guys.

PS. If they launch a Z68-OC version I´ll definately buy one as well. This one I´ll pass.

6 year and 8 months ago –
Normal server guys never overclock :D Reliability of server is a first MUST :) Then goes everything else, like peformance, noise, price, etc. Admins divide on two categorys - those who are already doing backups, and those who are not yet :D
[QUOTE]overclockers don’t really care about the practical relevance[QUOTE]
Not all, some of freaks push hardware only, just for fun and adrenaline, not by exact pushing superi or 3dmarks for every micronanoboint possible :D
In a rest, we will see more OC oriented products later, I'm sure.
Dinos, any P67A-OC ? :D

6 year and 8 months ago –
Very well said.. and honestly I didn't even think of all the possabilities... for the price this is a big win.... since I got to play with it... its definitely worth it... seriously...

6 year and 8 months ago –
I want to say this is the truest(dont know if this word exist...) article ever read on the web, ok I know I only browse HWBot -.-

Stop joking this time :D
S*** I said stop.

Yes massman I agree totally with you, when I overclock, I always disable, LAN, Audio, IDE, USB... In fact everything that is useless

No, they need just what they need: stable board, just enough features and the lowest price possible. Yes, crunchers are definitely friends of the overclockers.

I started to overclock this year(I mean 2010) and I was first aiming boards without useless features like -c version of Asus mainboars, like cusl2-c :D.

Gigabyte has to thank you for this article, I will for sure buy one even if I don't have any LGA1366's CPU and if X58 is in his end of life.

Regarding the sound card, XD I always used to hate integrated chip, that's why I have the Creative SoundBlaster Titanium X-Fi Fatal1ty Champion Edition Series... OMG I just revealed why my scores are so high :D

Thumbs up for massman and to OC boards.

btw are you sure you are 21 years old ?
(this article comes from a wise?)

That why we have to buy X58A-OC and not the R3E BE ;) (Wifi + Bigfoot Killer WTFF :eek:)

6 year and 8 months ago –
when I thought there was too much talk about this board, comes this ...

come on, you make it sound like no manufacturer has ever done any adjustment to any of their products for the sake of improving the board's overclocking potential / making the board more overclocking-friendly in any way ... ever!
gigabyte have done it to a slightly higher extrent, which seems normal in the world of "let's outdo the others" marketing

I didn't test the X58A-OC but I can't imagine in which way it might be better than the competition.
High benching frequencies? Other boards can do that, here it depends on what your CPU can do.
Good efficency? Other boards can do that too provided you have support in the way of "special BIOS" (=not uncommon).
Stability and predictability? Never had any issues with that on Rampage3-series and "normal" X58A- boards.
Durability? May it will live longer in the hands of a careless noob, but I don't know many who have common problems with that. And what the warranties are for, anyway?
Cheaper price? There is already a market for used <$280 X58 boards with similar overclocking capabilities, and it doesn't look that the X58A-OC is going to be widely available worldwide to begin with.
What else? It just doesn't seem to offer anything you can't get on some other board...

Sam OCX said: when I thought there was too much talk about this board, comes this ...

come on, you make it sound like no manufacturer has ever done any adjustment to any of their products for the sake of improving the board's overclocking potential / making the board more overclocking-friendly in any way ... ever!
gigabyte have done it to a slightly higher extrent, which seems normal in the world of "let's outdo the others" marketing

I didn't test the X58A-OC but I can't imagine in which way it might be better than the competition.
High benching frequencies? Other boards can do that, here it depends on what your CPU can do.
Good efficency? Other boards can do that too provided you have support in the way of "special BIOS" (=not uncommon).
Stability and predictability? Never had any issues with that on Rampage3-series and "normal" X58A- boards.
Durability? May it will live longer in the hands of a careless noob, but I don't know many who have common problems with that. And what the warranties are for, anyway?
Cheaper price? There is already a market for used <$280 X58 boards with similar overclocking capabilities, and it doesn't look that the X58A-OC is going to be widely available worldwide to begin with.
What else? It just doesn't seem to offer anything you can't get on some other board...

Sam, you are missing the point.
Gigabyte has done a huge effort - or.... Hicookie has done a huge effort, Gigabyte allowed most of it.... to make a TRIMMED board that kicks butt for overclocking.
It has the high quality components, and not alot of "crap", SATA3, USB3 we could do without, same with sound, but those are estimated to be minimal cost - knowing cookie, he did not approve this, but as Massman has said many times, and even asked in the video; "how many fights did you guys have", obviously Hicookie, PR and nobody else from Gigabyte will confirm anything as for internal discussions, but, knowing Hicookies passion for overclocking, and desire to get more people into it; I am confident those were not approved by him, just "accepted".

I do not think Gigabyte will make money on this product; the product is made for us overclockers, the tool of marketing, and, we should respond positively.... Would blow if Gigabyte decides "fluck them; if we do what they want, they'll still whine"... And honestly; They have done a MASSIVE effort on this product.

280 USD, and the choice of components, oh well....!

YOUR point of view; Man I know what kind of results you have acheived, and might not agree that it is "required", this, from your results, I cannot argue with... However, IF it is required, which obviously for some CPU's it might be; then this can deliver.
There is no reason to mock it.

6 year and 8 months ago –
as i guy who was interested in overclocking but didnt really start doing it untill 2 or so years ago this board is got 2 things going for it, 1 its cheap (well cheaper then my UD7) (it cost me $400!!) 2.its got a purpose,and that purpose is overclocking.
even though im not extreme yet (i only bench on air) this board is still go for that.
i also blame XS and dino/team AU for getting me serious about this....:P
great article massman,good reading!

Sam OCX said: come on, you make it sound like no manufacturer has ever done any adjustment to any of their products for the sake of improving the board's overclocking potential / making the board more overclocking-friendly in any way ... ever!

But ... at what price? And do you want to pay for crap you never use anyway?

Of course we can all buy the latest $500 mainboard and have the 'best' hardware. But why spend $500, if we should be paying $250? Because manufacturers force us to choose for that board? You being pretty much the most anti-{insert_vendor} in the community should agree that we pay to much for features we never -ever- use.

In this article, I'm trying to show that there are more people who just need the same basic components. The only people who really want the product with everything integrated are the normal consumers and gamers. Crunchers, audiophiles, high-end home server, overclockers and I'm sure many others absolutely don't. So why should we pay for that?

6 year and 8 months ago –
I hate to say it, but I agree with mista Gigabyte/Corsair Beier Sam... don't think a budget X5 will achieve long term OC durability/longetivity...
If it performs as advertised this board is a winner on all fronts... even for daily casual OCers/gamers this is a winner

6 year and 8 months ago –
correct if i am wrong please, i am not trying to being a smart ass here or anything but yeah... gigabyte, you guys are a little too late to the party, the i am sure the G1 and X58-OC is very nice and all that but for real dude! it's like the party starts around 6PM and you guys showed up around midnight when everyone already went home or passed out already! and the i don't really see any real time everyday usage with the X58-OC i may be wrong on that...
but naw here is the thing tho.. like if i wanna use a really nice mobo, ASUS R3E and EVGA Classified are everyone's fav at the time before Sandy and her slutty sisters is coming out (EN/EP/EX) and the whore around the corner Ivy is coming out, why will people drop this cash in to it? i mean like if you wanna really drop some cash in a setup get a set of SR2 or something that'll really put some hair on your a$$

says:

6 year and 8 months ago –

Sam OCX said: when I thought there was too much talk about this board,

I think your failing to recognize the significance of this board

Yes manufactuers include featutes for overclockers, but this board has been designed for us

All fanboi ism aside, this is a huge break through for us and could lead to similar products from many vendors

6 year and 8 months ago –
significance?
you want them to start crippling the normal desktop boards on overclocking features so that the overclockers' series looks better / is the only thing for OCers to buy? (much like Intel did with sandybridge) ... I believe this WILL happen eventually if they too start separating overclockers from the rest of crowd.

Right now the only reason why someone would buy the X58A-OC is 'because there is lots of talk about it going on the web so I need to try it to look good' , not because it can do something other boards can't (for example, R3F from around the same price segment). Like I said, if Gigabyte and other brands want us, overclockers, to buy these products - they need us to see and feel the difference .. which they can only achieve by making the normal desktop boards worse.

6 year and 8 months ago –
I'm a little bit worried about that too.
The X58A-UD3R is a brilliant board and a very good overclocker... ESPECIALLY for the price, but the UD9 had the tweaked BIOS for efficiency... for the hardcore bencher... what ya gonna pick? It's the age-old question... value for money, or THE BEST. Why do they have to be so different? How many people went and bought the UD9 with their own money? The "have" and the "have not" is a real problem in benching at the moment. I've had a few guys say recently "I'm finding it REALLY hard to get samples at the moment" but some guys are being given boxes full of boards, trays of CPUs to bin and play with.
I'm worried that this board is the "introductory price" and if it is a success, maybe the specific OC boards in 2 years time will be the only way to get good efficiency, but the price won't be so friendly. BIOS support is another concern.
I would think this no matter who released the board

6 year and 8 months ago –
Speaking of cheating, with the bclk adjustment available at the push of a button I guess there wouldn't be anything stopping someone from bumping up the mhz for a capped benchmark (like the DDR3 high clock challenge for example)

6 year and 8 months ago –
I've been following your editorials regarding the differentiation of the overclocking market from the gamer market... It is a hard thing for manufacturers to perceive and be convinced of. I agree with your insight that now is more ripe of a time than ever, especially in light of the decreased relevance in overclocking for every day usage. Do you really need an extra 500Mhz on your quad core desktop for 24/7 use? No.

However, there are more people than ever interested in the HOBBY. Overclocking for the joy of overclocking. It's like drag racing. Tweaking, tuning to reap that last bit of performance. Its like golf. You struggle, can't hit the sweet spot all day, but finally when you get that perfect shot and that great score... Oh my, that reward is sweet.

I get where you are coming from, and agree the importance of this product is great, the same way you do. I'd like to see more sites covering this aspect of the product, and I think I'll see what I can put together on Overclockers.com also... Making a statement about what we want could lead to a brighter future and recognition for our niche as a legitimate and separate market for tailored products to our needs.

'[200] said: Speaking of cheating, with the bclk adjustment available at the push of a button I guess there wouldn't be anything stopping someone from bumping up the mhz for a capped benchmark (like the DDR3 high clock challenge for example)

The buttons are nothing more than an on-board hardware replacement for software like SetFSB or ASUS' Tweak-IT.

There will be no additional security issues, but won't take any away either.

6 year and 8 months ago –
Actually now that I think about it, it was a bit of a silly thing to say considering software can be used prior to a benchmark to increase frequency then bump it back down for a screenshot.

6 year and 8 months ago –
How about an R3E without all the extended stuff... stripped down..... tested with better components... There not doing it... maybe this will help them also......

This is a big step in the industry... a real OC board... which could lead to other OC boards.... X58 is still king... for now... this could lead to a OC-ivy bridge... etc.... come on people, get with the program and think out of the box...... the cold bug box... rofl....

6 year and 8 months ago –
So, what will be the price of this board? 199&#8364;?
You can get RIIIE at 306&#8364; in EU and it is very good for overclocking and it also have all possible features to do whatever you like.
http://geizhals.at/a522146.html
RIII Formula can be bought at 249&#8364; and people have done similar OC results with it. Only the PWM part is different from extreme.
Like we all should know overclocking nowadays is more about the CPU you have. If you have crappy CPU, there is no mainboard which can make it good. Maybe someone will again bin 400 cpu's to get in to 1st position with this mainboard :)
I don't know what to think about this product. Idea is kind of good, if I think it from our point of view, but then again is there any point to try to split mainboards for so small group. There is millions of gamers and that is just a lot larger market.

You can get RIIIE at 306€ in EU and it is very good for overclocking and it also have all possible features to do whatever you like.http://geizhals.at/a522146.html
RIII Formula can be bought at 249€ and people have done similar OC results with it. Only the PWM part is different from extreme.

Like we all should know overclocking nowadays is more about the CPU you have. If you have crappy CPU, there is no mainboard which can make it good. Maybe someone will again bin 400 cpu's to get in to 1st position with this mainboard :)

I don't know what to think about this product. Idea is kind of good, if I think it from our point of view, but then again is there any point to try to split mainboards for so small group. There is millions of gamers and that is just a lot larger market.

Thats quite a bit cheaper with specific options.. Since mass said it.. add your own card... only add what you need .... I think its a great idea... and its growing on me more... I would like to see ASUS do something similar.. I have a R3E and I think its an excellent board.. just alot of things I don't need.. :)

Sam OCX said: what is so funny about that anyway?
or you suggest that CPU binning for WR-marketing purposes never happens?

Happens in all the camps...
Example; MSI MOA qualifier, 4x ASUS Direct Cu II GTX580 was bought by Danish overclockers, none of them hit anywhere near 1400mhz 3Dmark2011, which all the cards that we have heard off does.... Which reminds me; I have not seen one single national review of the product, it seems that all has been used for the screening process in Scandinavia ;)

dinos22 said: i cropped the QUOTE a bit more in case it was somehow leading to a dumbass conclusion you are making :D

Congratulations, you managed being an arrogant @ss once again, well done, bravo.

---
Summed up; Sam I maintain my opinion stated from the very start; I think this is an extremely nice move by Gigabyte.
*And no; I am not as biased as you think.
The hardware support from Gigabyte motherboards over past 15 months has been a joke.

elmor said: No media samples were harmed during this process :D The cards aren't as easy as just plug in and run 1400MHz, it takes time to learn how to bench a specific card for best possible results.

ofc. but I had a wise man close on msn :P
However, we are talking more then 100mhz gap, and yes; we did listen of the "crack" sound should occur, it did not, we had a backup pot ready at all times.
In our case ~180mhz gap, that is alot.

Dont know if they are media samples, the ones tested in Stockholm, because no media seem to get them.

6 year and 6 months ago –
[QUOTE]Boot Gulftown? /[QUOTE]
Yeah ... I guess LGA1366 is the front line still, but LGA11155 does smoother overclocking with much less LN2. Guess we'll see some new records with the Giga X58A-0C.
It would be nice though to see if an extreme Sandy Bridge chip could beat the 990X.

6 year and 6 months ago –
[QUOTE]Boot Gulftown?[ /QUOTE]
Yeah ... I guess LGA1366 is the front line still, but LGA11155 does smoother overclocking with much less LN2. Guess we'll see some new records with the Giga X58A-0C.
It would be nice though to see if an extreme Sandy Bridge chip could beat the 990X.

6 year and 6 months ago –
Oh good... just making sure we were on the same page.
Delay after delay and a huge increase in the price = unhappy Bassplayer.
This is what needs to happen...
For the next enthusiast platform, release an OC at a $250-$300 and release an OC4 (2 NF200's) at $400-$500. And do it towards the beginning of the product's lifetime.
Then the entire enthusiast community would own your board...

6 year and 6 months ago –
That Swiss price is a rip off... seems some marketing guys are a bit over enthousiastic...

Looking at Tones Pricing of 369 euros which is above the UD7 and RE3... no idea how you are gonna persuade a client to go for this board... Gb better force a street price or be stuck with a whole load of excellent mobos...